Promoting a Child Safe Culture in Institutions:

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to gain insight into how the prevention of violence against women intersects with prevention of child sexual abuse in institutions, incorporating the prevention framework of violence against women Change the Story and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The underlying assumption of this research is that preventing child sexual abuse in institutions will reduce violence against women long term. A qualitative approach was undertaken using three methods for triangulation: a document analysis, key informant interviews and focus group discussion. The way hegemonic masculinity and feminist institutionalism are manifested in institutional culture is that they both affect conceptions of hierarchy, gender roles, and control, resulting in different power structures. Total institutions, which were a common form of institutions investigated by the Royal Commission, are an example of an old model of institutionalist approaches that are characterised by hegemonic masculine values. Feminist institutionalism on the other hand, has a transformative agenda to break down male dominant institutional hierarchies and promote egalitarian cultures in organisations. The gendered drivers of violence against women outlined in Change the Story provide both the lens and the tools for feminist institutional approaches which in turn help promote child safe cultures in institutions.